git-annex tries to ensure that the configured number of copies of your data always exist, and leaves it up to you to use commands like git annex get and git annex drop to move the content to the repositories you want to contain it. But sometimes, it can be good to have more fine-grained control over which repositories prefer to have which content. Configuring this allows git annex get --auto, git annex drop --auto, etc to do smarter things.

Currently, preferred content settings can only be edited using git annex vicfg. Each repository can have its own settings, and other repositories may also try to honor those settings. So there's no local .git/config setting it.

The idea is that you write an expression that files are matched against. If a file matches, it's preferred to have its content stored in the repository. If it doesn't, it's preferred to drop its content from the repository (if there are enough copies elsewhere).

The expressions are very similar to the file matching options documented on the git-annex man page. At the command line, you can use those options in commands like this:

git annex get --include='*.mp3' --and -'(' --not --largerthan=100mb -')'

The equivilant preferred content expression looks like this:

include=*.mp3 and (not largerthan=100mb)

So, just remove the dashes, basically. However, there are some differences from the command line options to keep in mind:

difference: file matching

While --include and --exclude match files relative to the current directory, preferred content expressions always match files relative to the top of the git repository. Perhaps you put files into archive directories when you're done with them. Then you could configure your laptop to prefer to not retain those files, like this:

exclude=*/archive/*

difference: no "in="

Preferred content expressions have no direct equivilant to --in.

Often, it's best to add repositories to groups, and match against the groups in a preferred content expression. So rather than --in=usbdrive, put all the USB drives into a "transfer" group, and use "copies=transfer:1"

difference: dropping

To decide if content should be dropped, git-annex evaluates the preferred content expression under the assumption that the content has already been dropped. If the content would not be preferred then, the drop can be done. So, for example, copies=2 in a preferred content expression lets content be dropped only when there are currently 3 copies of it, including the repo it's being dropped from. This is different than running git annex drop --copies=2, which will drop files that currently have 2 copies.

difference: "present"

There's a special "present" keyword you can use in a preferred content expression. This means that content is preferred if it's present, and not otherwise. This leaves it up to you to use git-annex manually to move content around. You can use this to avoid preferred content settings from affecting a subdirectory. For example:

auto/* or (include=ad-hoc/* and present)

Note that not present is a very bad thing to put in a preferred content expression. It'll make it prefer to get content that's not present, and drop content that is present! Don't go there..

standard expressions

git-annex comes with some standard preferred content expressions, that can be used with repositories that are in some pre-defined groups. To make a repository use one of these, just set its preferred content expression to "standard", and put it in one of these groups.

(Note that most of these standard expressions also make the repository prefer any content that is only currently available on untrusted and dead repositories. So if an untrusted repository gets connected, any repository that can will back it up.)

client

All content is preferred, unless it's for a file in a "archive" directory, which has reached an archive repository.

((exclude=*/archive/* and exclude=archive/*) or (not (copies=archive:1 or copies=smallarchive:1))) or (not copies=semitrusted+:1)

transfer

Use for repositories that are used to transfer data between other repositories, but do not need to retain data themselves. For example, a repository on a server, or in the cloud, or a small USB drive used in a sneakernet.

The preferred content expression for these causes them to get and retain data until all clients have a copy.

(not (inallgroup=client and copies=client:2) and ($client)

The "copies=client:2" part of the above handles the case where there is only one client repository. It makes a transfer repository speculatively prefer content in this case, even though it as of yet has nowhere to transfer it to. Presumably, another client repository will be added later.

backup

All content is preferred.

include=*

incremental backup

Only prefers content that's not already backed up to another backup or incremental backup repository.

(include=* and (not copies=backup:1) and (not copies=incrementalbackup:1)) or (not copies=semitrusted+:1)

small archive

Only prefers content that's located in an "archive" directory, and only if it's not already been archived somewhere else.

((include=*/archive/* or include=archive/*) and not (copies=archive:1 or copies=smallarchive:1)) or (not copies=semitrusted+:1)

full archive

All content is preferred, unless it's already been archived somewhere else.

(not (copies=archive:1 or copies=smallarchive:1)) or (not copies=semitrusted+:1)

Note that if you want to archive multiple copies (not a bad idea!), you should instead configure all your archive repositories with a version of the above preferred content expression with a larger number of copies.

source

Use for repositories where files are often added, but that do not need to retain files for local use. For example, a repository on a camera, where it's desirable to remove photos as soon as they're transferred elsewhere.

The preferred content expression for these causes them to only retain data until a copy has been sent to some other repository.

not (copies=1)

manual

This gives you nearly full manual control over what content is stored in the repository. This allows using the assistant without it trying to keep a local copy of every file. Instead, you can manually run git annex get, git annex drop, etc to manage content. Only content that is present is preferred.

The exception to this manual control is that content that a client repository would not want is not preferred. So, files in archive directories are not preferred once their content has reached an archive repository.

present and ($client)

unwanted

Use for repositories that you don't want to exist. This will result in any content on them being moved away to other repositories. (Works best when the unwanted repository is also marked as untrusted or dead.)

exclude=*